(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to vehicles and more particularly to window shades for automobiles when parked. Applicant submits that an ordinary automobile driver is one having ordinary skill in this art.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In certain areas solar radiation is particularly high. In these areas parked vehicles, and particularly automobiles, get extremely hot on the interior. Modern car designs feature a large number of windows many of which are slanting rather than vertical. These slanted windows allow the solar radiation to heat the interiors' of the automobiles to temperatures well above 150 degrees Fahrenheit. The problem is aggravated because most people desire to close the windows and lock the doors of the car for security reasons.
Early solutions to this problem included putting newspapers or towels over the windows and rolling the windows up. This was a reasonably satisfactory provision for the side windows that roll up and down, but it is no solution at all for the windshield and the rear window of an automobile.
In recent years embodiments of Levy's U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,396 have become commercially available and in widespread use. Before that time, many patents had been issued to attempt to solve this problem.
Before this application was filed, the applicant was aware of the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ 1,814,293 V. J. Christie 1,959,137 K. I. Miller 3,003,812 G. D. Haugland 3,183,033 N. Stulbach 4,558,899 Chu et al. 4,560,245 Sarver 4,647,102 Ebrahimzadeh 4,736,980 Eubanks 3,946,788 van Muyen 4,518,025 Judkins 4,557,309 Judkins 4,673,018 Judkins ______________________________________
These Patents are of interest because it appears that all of these Patents except the three to Judkins and one to van Muyen are related to this problem To applicants knowledge none of these Patents except Judkins have been widely used in the United States.
The Judkins patents are of interest because these patents issued assigned to by Verosol, which widely distributes pleated type of curtain or shade or sun-blind material.
van Muyen is of interest because it also has pleated type of material and shows the overlapping connection of two sections of this type of material.